‘Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses’ by Kristen O’Neal: Pros and Cons of Being Friends with a Werewolf

Many thanks to NetGalley, Quirk Books and the author for an advanced copy of Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses in exchange for my honest review.

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• Title: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
• Author: Kristen O’Neal
• Publisher: Quirk Books
• Pub. date: 27 April 2020
• Series: none
• Page count: 333
• Source: NetGalley
• Genres: young adult, magic realism, fantasy, humour

Note: All quotes are taken from an advanced reader copy and might not be as the same in a finished copy of this book.

Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarming debut young adult novel about friendship and the hairy side of chronic illness.

Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease during her sophomore year sends her back to her loving but overbearing family in New Jersey—and leaves her wondering if she’ll ever be able to return to the way things were. Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of “oof ouch my bones,” a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.

When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn’t sure what to expect, but it isn’t the horrifying creature that’s shut in the basement. With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf—and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid’s unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal. 

I have yet to read a YA book with a chronic illness rep and a werewolf featured in it at the same time. And the main character is of Indian heritage, Priya. This book sounded like an interesting and unique twist on diversity, so I jumped at the chance to grab a copy.

At the beginning of the story, we meet Priya who was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and on medical leave from her premed studies at Stanford. This forced her to move back home to New Jersey with her parents, her brother Suresh and her sister Kiki. With her life on hold and her symptoms flaring up and down regularly, Priya is disheartened about her own future and ends up isolating herself from her college life and friends.

Priya befriended Brigid on Tumblr and they have been constantly in contact with each other for a while now. Brigid and Priya join a Discord group of people who are all living with chronic illnesses, aptly named “oof ouch my bones”, and they all make fast friends.

Suddenly, Brigid goes silent online and Priya makes the impulsive decision to drive all the way to Brigid’s place to check on her. What Priya ends up finding is a werewolf smackdab in the middle of Brigid’s house. Priya now has to help her werewolf friend, Brigid, figure out what exactly is going on along with their new friend from animal control, Spencer.

• Priya and her siblings had a fun and hilarious dynamic. Her younger siblings provided quite a bit of humour as well as some heartfelt moments.
• I loved every hilarious moment with Priya, Brigid and Spencer! Spencer is such a cute and funny goofball, Brigid is all tough exterior and impulsivity, and Priya was the brains and the down-to-earth presence. They made such a fun team to follow along with and I laughed aloud at all the funny mishaps they got mixed up in.

“You can’t get teen pregnant,” I say.

“No, I’m going to!” she shouts.

“No, I mean, it’s impossible. You’re twenty.!

• I found the chronic illness support group on Discord a great idea! I enjoyed how everyone shared their feelings and experiences with each other online, and how the group became a crutch for them to fall back on when the going gets tough. I was also impressed by how some heavy issues were tackled by the group members!
• It was interesting to read about Priya’s perspective on her recovery and how she comes to realise the role her family plays in it. Sometimes all the bad things that happen can really throw a person’s perspective on what is actually happening and how they can navigate it, so I found Priya’s journey through that very insightful.
• I loved the relationship between Priya and Spencer! They are so cute and hilarious together! I also liked the inklings of romance that kept popping up; they made me gush at them each time!

“I’m not sure I want to be in an enclosed space with you.”

“What am I gonna kill you with, my cell phone? My Lyme disease?”

• Personally, I found the revelations that come out about Brigid’s lycanthropy at the end to be a very interesting way to spin the story. I was surprised by that twist, in a pleasant way.

• It took me a looooong time to warm up to Brigid. I feel like that is more of a personal thing rather than a problem with the story, but yeah I had a hard time liking Brigid on her own as a character.
• There were a few plot holes that I just could not get over, like how Brigid’s parents left her on her own at home while they are miles away, knowing that their daughter transforms into a werewolf.
• I also found Priya’s impulsive decision to visit Brigid that first time to be very off-character. It would have made a lot more sense if she had taken Suresh or someone with her because A) she had no idea if she could make the drive with how her health was and B) she just took off on a one-hour drive without letting anyone know what the heck was happening!
• Based on the fact that Priya and her family are from an Indian background, I expected way more South Asian rep here. The most South Asian aspect of Priya’s family were their names and that’s it. I found that very unrealistic and problematic. But then based on the fact that this isn’t an #ownvoices book, I should have expected this, I guess.
• Though I liked the idea of the Discord support group, I was not a fan of how the author chose to just leave almost a chapter-long thread of messages for the reader to go through, without adding in much from Priya’s POV during those moments. It made it a bit tedious to keep up with like I am reading the 50+ messages left unread on a WhatsApp group.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses was a fun, hilarious take on being a werewolf and friendships, but does not really manage to really focus on the diversity and chronic illness rep I was hoping for. I loved the author’s style of writing but the execution left me questioning the story at times. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a light, hilarious story about friendships, but not to anyone hoping for more depth with Indian cultural diversity or chronic illness rep.

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I’m a freelance writer who’s written for sites like Buzzfeed Reader, Christianity Today, Birth.Movies.Death, LitHub, and Electric Literature. I write about faith, culture (especially in film and television), unexplained phenomena and what it says about us as people, and the ways the Internet can be weird, wonderful, and human.

My debut novel, Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, comes out from Quirk Books in April 2021. In fiction, I love liminal spaces, making jokes, humanizing monsters, and investigating coming of age from different angles.

I’m represented by Dana Murphy at The Book Group.

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